This page is the complete list of what the Ditch Assist app does — from RTK surveying and Slope-IQ™ design through automatic blade control, tile installation, LiDAR mapping, and multi-day job management. All of it ships in one Android app, included with every kit. No subscription, no per-mode activation. On any machine, Ditch Assist Lite — only a GPS on the blade, no wires — runs every mode, plus LiDAR Drainage Mapping, as on-screen guidance: you work the controls.
Tap any feature card for the full story — where to find it in the app and how to use it.
Search by job, tool, or problem. Results update as you type.
Each of the eight modes below has its own guided setup and work screen, and LiDAR Drainage Mapping prepares the field before you work it. Tap one for the full story on that job.
Survey the run, let Slope-IQ design the minimum-cut drain, and grade it automatically with a scraper, ditcher, or pull-type dozer blade.
Simple Maintenance: one channel survey to maintain an existing terrace. Standard Terracing: survey channel and berm to build or rebuild, and see how much dirt the berm needs.
Run 3D field designs from Geo-Surface™ Pro and other popular land-forming design tools — XYZP, AGD, or LandXML.
Set a constant slope and go — no survey required, no laser tripod to set up.
Design tile runs that stay between your minimum and maximum depth, then install uphill from the outlet with Automatic Rock Hit Recovery.
Flat pads and dead-level basins from a benchmark or your current blade position.
Follow the contour with lightbar steering — levees, contour rice, and water management berms.
Bucket-tip depth and grade guidance with the DIG™ Kit — clean ditches and drains from the cab.
Prepare a field before you work it — cached imagery, LiDAR elevation, flow paths, and ponding maps.
Every design starts with a survey of the ground. Ditch Assist records it with your RTK receiver — no separate survey gear, no laser tripod.
Drive the planned route and the app records the terrain with centimeter-level RTK positioning, drawing the elevation profile live as you go.
More →Start any workflow from the Home screen and the wizard walks you straight into the Survey screen. Tap Start Survey and drive the planned route at a comfortable speed — the app logs an elevation point at your chosen interval and draws the ground profile on the chart in real time, with the route shown on the map beside it.
Where you'll find it: Home → pick a workflow (Ditching, Tiling, Terracing…) → the Survey screen opens as the first step. The survey interval and implement width live in Settings.
How to use it: raise the implement to transport, tap Start, drive the line you intend to cut, and tap Stop at the end. Save it with a name — the design tools open right from the finished survey.
Water in the ditch? Pause, drive around, resume — the gap is bridged automatically and drawn dashed so you know it's interpolated.
More →Standing water, a fence crossing, or a soft spot doesn't have to ruin a survey. Pause recording, drive around the obstacle on solid ground, position yourself back on the line, and resume — the app bridges the gap with a straight line between the last point before and the first point after.
Where you'll find it: the Pause / Resume button sits in the survey sidebar while recording is active.
How to use it: tap Pause before you leave the line, and Resume once you're back on it past the obstacle. The bridged span draws dashed on both the profile chart and the map, so you always know which stretch is interpolated rather than measured.
Can't drive the run at all? Take individual point shots at the stations you can reach; elevations between shots are interpolated into a usable profile.
More →Some runs can't be driven continuously at all — a ditch full of water, a crop you don't want to track through. Shot mode turns the survey into discrete station shots: drive or walk to each spot you can reach, log a point, and move on. The app interpolates the elevations between your shots into a continuous profile you can design from.
Where you'll find it: in the survey sidebar, switch the capture toggle from Drive to Shots. The Start button becomes a Log Point button.
How to use it: position the machine at a station, hold still, tap Log Point, and drive to the next one. Fewer, well-chosen shots at grade breaks beat many random ones.
Shoot a point, drive, and read the live grade between it and your position — a quick slope check without recording a survey.
More →Sometimes you don't need a survey — you just need to know which way the water runs and how hard. Grade Check is a live two-point slope readout: shoot a reference point, then drive; the app continuously shows the grade, distance, and elevation change between that point and wherever you are now, labelled uphill or downhill.
Where you'll find it: in the survey sidebar while in Shots mode — tap Grade Check.
How to use it: park at one end, set the reference, drive to the other end, and read the result. Nothing is recorded, so use it freely — checking an outlet before you commit, verifying a finished cut, or settling an argument about which end is higher.
Drive a grid or perimeter to build an elevation model of an entire field — feeding levee, terracing, and tiling design work.
More →Contour work needs more than a single line — it needs the whole field's shape. The Field Survey screen records a free-drive survey across the field: drive a grid, a spiral, or whatever pattern covers the ground, and the app builds an elevation model from the drive.
Where you'll find it: the Levee workflow, Contour Tiling, and Contour-Guided Terracing offer Field Survey as a terrain source when the job needs full-field elevation; it opens as its own screen with Start/Pause, Log Point Here, and Finish & Save controls.
How to use it: drive passes across the field roughly at your swath width, use Pause when crossing areas you don't want recorded, and Finish & Save. The saved field survey is then available as a terrain source for contour generation and design work in those workflows.
The app measures antenna-to-blade height for you with RTK, so transport-position surveys come out at true ground elevation.
More →You survey with the implement raised in transport, but the design targets the ground. The blade-height setting closes that gap — and instead of measuring with a tape, the app can measure it for you using RTK itself.
Where you'll find it: the app prompts for blade height before your first survey; you can revisit it any time under Settings, where the Auto Measure option lives.
How to use it: with Auto Measure, set the blade on the ground and capture, then raise to your normal transport position and capture again — the difference is your blade height, measured to RTK precision. Every survey point is then automatically corrected from antenna height to true ground elevation.
Design in the cab, on the spot. Every designer shows the survey and the proposed grade on one interactive profile chart before you commit.
One tap designs a smooth ditch line that falls to the outlet the whole run — minimum cut, minimum grade respected, outlet direction auto-detected, cut volume estimated.
More →Slope-IQ designs the ditch in the Ditching workflow. Feed it a survey and it computes a smooth design line that falls toward the outlet the whole run, honors your minimum grade, and moves as little dirt as possible — then shows you the estimated cut volume before you touch the ground.
Where you'll find it: after finishing or loading a ditch survey, the Slope-IQ dialog opens automatically (or from the sidebar design button). Best-Fit is the first tab.
How to use it: check the auto-detected outlet direction (tap the Outlet toggle if it guessed wrong), set your minimum grade and maximum cut if needed, and tap Implement Slope. The design draws over the survey on the chart — green where you'll cut, with the volume estimate updating as you adjust. Then it's straight to the Grade screen.
Take control when you want it: pin the design through chosen survey points (Guided) or place and drag your own vertices (Freeform) — in both the ditch and tile designers.
More →When you know something the optimizer doesn't — a culvert invert, a tile inlet, a stretch that must not be touched — take over. Guided mode pins the design through survey points you choose and joins them with straight grade segments that still respect minimum grade. Freeform removes the rules entirely: drop vertices anywhere on the chart, drag them, delete them.
Where you'll find it: as tabs in both the Slope-IQ dialog (Ditching) and the Tile Design dialog (Tiling).
How to use it: in Guided, tap survey points on the chart to mark them as control points. In Freeform, tap empty chart space to add a vertex and drag to shape the line. Undo steps back one edit at a time, and the tile designer flags any vertex that violates your depth band rather than silently moving it.
Keeps the tile between your minimum and maximum depth, as close to target depth as grade allows, and gives you the Required Start Depth at the outlet — with amber/red shading where cover runs shallow or deep.
More →Tile design is a box, not a line: the pipe must stay below minimum cover, above maximum depth, and on continuous positive grade to the outlet. Tile-Best-Fit fits the profile inside that box automatically and tells you the Required Start Depth at the outlet before you drop the plow.
Where you'll find it: the Tile Design dialog opens after a tile-run survey in the Tiling workflow. Depth limits live right in the dialog; your defaults are in Settings.
How to use it: set minimum, target, and maximum depth, and tap Apply Design. The chart shades cover violations — amber where the pipe would run too shallow, red where too deep — so a problem run is obvious before installation. Then install uphill from the outlet with the design as the target.
Type a slope, set the starting elevation from your blade, and grade — no survey needed.
More →Laser-style single-grade work with no tripod: one constant slope from a known starting point, no survey needed, and it turns corners.
Where you'll find it: pick Simple Grading from the Home screen; the design bar opens before grading.
How to use it: enter the slope as a percentage, then set the starting elevation — the easiest way is putting the blade on the ground where grade begins and using the current position. Tap Start and drive; the target falls (or climbs) at your set grade along the distance you travel, whichever direction you steer. An optional survey pass first lets you sanity-check the slope against the real ground on the profile chart.
Simple Maintenance designs the channel from one survey and copies it to the berm. Standard Terracing surveys channel and berm, and Auto-Balance deepens the channel design when the berm needs more dirt.
More →Terracing has two paths. Simple Maintenance surveys one channel, designs its grade, and copies the finished channel design to the berm with an adjustable offset. It does not include berm-terrain, fill-volume, or Auto-Balance analysis. Standard Terracing surveys the channel and berm for new construction or a major rebuild; Auto-Balance compares the channel cut with the dirt the berm needs and deepens the channel design if the cut comes up short.
Where you'll find it: the Terracing workflow card on Home, under Terracing Method.
How to use it: choose Simple Maintenance or Standard Terracing before surveying. On survey-built designs, Edit Design reopens the active design; saving changed geometry creates a new revision. In Simple Maintenance you can choose Keep My Progress to keep the work already done; otherwise grading progress restarts against the revised target. During automatic grading, tap HOLD or stop before switching Channel/Berm.
Run XYZP and AGD surface designs from Ezigrade, Geo-Surface Pro, and other popular land-forming software, or import LandXML TIN surfaces with automatic State Plane / UTM projection and a 3D preview. Cut/fill maps render on the field map.
More →If the design was made in the office, the app runs it in the field. XYZP and AGD surface files from Geo-Surface Pro and other popular land-forming and land-leveling design tools import directly, as do LandXML TIN surfaces from survey-grade software — including automatic State Plane and UTM coordinate projection so the surface lands exactly where it should on the map.
Where you'll find it: the Land Forming workflow's design step offers file import; LandXML has its own import wizard with an interactive 3D preview of the surface before you accept it.
How to use it: copy the file to the tablet, pick it in the import dialog, review the preview, and apply. The design renders as a color-coded cut/fill map over the field, so you can see at a glance where dirt is coming from and going to as you work.
The app compares RTK elevation against the design many times a second and drives the hydraulics to hold grade — while you just drive the line. That takes the Full Automation Kit, or the Guidance Only Kit plugged into a compatible factory valve, like the one on a Revolution Ditcher or Soil-Max Stealth ZD tile plow. With Ditch Assist Lite, or the Guidance Only Kit without a factory valve, the same screens show cut and fill and you work raise/lower yourself.
Live RTK positions stream to the hydraulic controller with the exact target elevation for every spot along the design — up and down without you touching a lever.
More →This is the core loop: several times a second the app takes the RTK position, finds the design target for exactly that spot, and commands the hydraulic controller to close the gap. You drive; the blade rides the design.
Where you'll find it: the Start button on any grading screen, once a design is loaded and the controller is connected.
How to use it: line up on the run, tap Start, and drive at a steady working speed. The live error readout shows how far the blade is from target; the deadband keeps the valve calm when you're on grade. Tap Stop (or Hold for a temporary pause) whenever you need the hydraulics back.
Deep cuts happen in passes: Auto-Nudge offsets the target above final grade and steps it down as you advance passes, staging each pass to the max cut you set.
More →A 12-inch cut isn't one pass — it's several, each taking what the machine can actually pull. Auto-Nudge manages that for you: it holds the working target a set amount above final grade and steps it down one increment each time you advance the pass, until the last pass lands on the design.
Where you'll find it: the app offers Auto-Nudge when a design has deep cuts; the toggle and the Pass +/− buttons live in the grading sidebar.
How to use it: accept the prompt (or flip the toggle), set your max cut per pass in Settings, and grade normally. When a pass stops moving dirt, tap Pass + and run it again. The pass counter and current-versus-final target readouts keep you oriented the whole way down.
Nudge the target up or down in inch steps without editing the design, or Hold to take manual control mid-run and Resume exactly where you left off.
More →Real fields need small judgment calls: shave a little less here, ride a touch higher through the wet spot. Nudge shifts the working target by a fixed step per tap without touching the underlying design, so the change is always visible and always reversible.
Where you'll find it: Nudge Up / Nudge Down buttons in the grading sidebar (they swap places with the pass buttons when Auto-Nudge is on); Hold sits next to Start.
How to use it: tap to nudge in steps — the step size is configurable in Settings, and the offset shows on screen until you clear it. Hold pauses automatic commands while keeping everything live on screen, then Resume hands the blade back to the controller.
In Manual Grade, tap Change Grade partway down the run, set the new slope and start the next leg. The profile chart shows every leg on one continuous line.
More →Manual Grade mode is for runs you shape as you go — and real runs change slope partway. Change Grade lets you switch from, say, 0.3% to 0.15% mid-run without stopping: the new segment starts from the elevation you're at, so there's never a step in the finished surface.
Where you'll find it: the Change Grade control in the Manual Grade screen's grade bar while grading.
How to use it: tap it, enter the new slope, and keep driving. The profile chart stitches every segment end-to-end on one continuous station axis, so the whole run reads as a single profile — including on an excavator with the DIG™ Kit, where 0% level cuts are allowed too.
Tiling-mode protection both directions: paced descent so the plow eases back to grade instead of diving, and automatic target lift when rock or hardpan forces the plow up.
More →Tile plows have a failure mode in each direction. Ask a pitched plow to chase a target far below the boot and it noses down and cuts a belly below design; hit rock and the plow rides up off grade. Tiling mode guards both sides automatically — the Descent Governor paces downward target changes so the plow eases back to grade at a controlled rate, and Automatic Rock Hit Recovery detects sustained ride-up and lifts the target by the measured amount instead of diving after the original line.
Where you'll find it: both are always on in the Tiling workflow — nothing to mount, wire, or calibrate.
How to use it: you don't have to do anything. A once-per-session notice explains the behavior, and when a rock hit fires you get an alert with the correction applied so you can decide whether to re-run the stretch.
A coverage grid paints where you've graded, the profile turns green as you reach grade, and chevrons, a target gauge, and audio alerts keep you on the line without staring at numbers.
More →Grading screens are built to be read at a glance from a bouncing cab. The map paints a coverage grid over everywhere the blade has worked; the profile chart draws your graded surface over the design and turns it green where you've reached grade; chevron arrows point up or down with size showing how far off you are.
Where you'll find it: all of it is on the grading screens automatically — the coverage layer on the map, the profile chart panel, chevrons beside the map, and the right-side target gauge showing the blade against the current and final targets.
How to use it: configure the inches-per-arrow sensitivity and the on-grade audio alert in Settings, then work by color and sound: green profile and a quiet tablet means move on; the coverage map shows what's left.
RTK bases move, jobs span days, and a restarted base can shift every elevation reading. Benchmarks keep every survey, design, and pass on one vertical reference — and the app watches your GPS health the whole time.
Set the blade on a known spot and calibrate in seconds — the app shifts today's GPS elevations to match the survey your design was built from.
More →Restart an RTK base and its elevation frame can land somewhere new — every reading shifts by the same amount, and yesterday's design no longer matches today's GPS. Benchmark calibration measures that shift once and corrects everything: displays, designs, and the targets sent to the controller.
Where you'll find it: tap the BM badge on the stats bar of any survey or grading screen to open the Calibrate Elevation sheet. It tells you what you are calibrated to and when. The badge is green when calibrated this session, amber when the calibration was restored from an earlier session and is due for recalibration, grey when not calibrated.
How to use it: pick what to calibrate to — a saved benchmark, the loaded survey, or the loaded design, nearest first. The drive-to card guides you onto the spot; lower the blade, hold still, and tap Calibrate for a 5-second average. The offset applies instantly and persists until you recalibrate. Typing in a known elevation is under Advanced.
Drop a named benchmark at a repeatable spot, and on any later visit the app finds the nearest one, guides you back to it, and recalibrates — the same reference across base moves and multi-day jobs.
More →The reliable way to keep a multi-day job on one vertical reference: benchmark a physical spot you can park on again — the field entrance, a culvert end — and return to it each visit.
Where you'll find it: tap the BM badge, then Manage benchmarks. In the Benchmarks panel you set a new benchmark where you're parked (the app averages the position for a few seconds for a solid fix), and rename, delete, or move one to a field. Saved benchmarks appear as flags on the map and in the Calibrate Elevation list, nearest first.
How to use it: on day one, save the benchmark before you survey. On every return, tap the BM badge, pick the benchmark, follow the drive-to card onto the spot, and recalibrate. In Field Mode, entering a field with a saved benchmark prompts you to calibrate to it. Surveys, designs, and half-finished jobs from any day now share the same reference, even after the base moved.
Re-benchmarking on a section already cut to grade? Calibrate against the design elevation instead of the original ground.
More →Returning to a half-finished run, the ground under your blade might already be cut to design — so calibrating against the original surveyed ground there would be wrong. The Calibrate Elevation sheet offers both.
Where you'll find it: tap the BM badge; the Calibrate Elevation sheet lists the loaded survey and the loaded design alongside your saved benchmarks.
How to use it: park on a stretch you've already finished, pick the loaded design, and calibrate — the app matches your blade to the design elevation at that station. On untouched ground, pick the loaded survey as usual. Either way you're back on the job's reference in seconds without hunting for undisturbed dirt.
One tap from Home shows controller and GNSS health — fix quality, correction age, live position — plus hold-to-move valve tests before you head to the field.
More →Find the problem in the yard, not three passes into the run. Pre-Flight Checks is a one-screen health check for the whole rig: connection status, RTK fix quality with green/yellow/red grading, correction and update age, and your full-precision position.
Where you'll find it: the orange Pre-Flight Checks button on the Home screen.
How to use it: connect (or switch) your controller or GPS source right from the panel, confirm the GNSS numbers are green, then use the hold-to-move Raise / Lower valve tests to confirm the hydraulics respond in the right directions. If something's wrong, you know before you leave the approach.
An optional check at Start: if the design target and your current elevation are further apart than your threshold, the app warns you before the blade moves — a quick catch for a stale benchmark or the wrong field's design.
More →The most expensive mistakes happen in the first second — starting with yesterday's benchmark after the base moved, or with the wrong field's design loaded. With the check switched on, the app compares the design target at your position against your live elevation at every Start, and if they are further apart than your threshold it stops to tell you, in plain terms, which way and how far the blade would move.
Where you'll find it: Settings → Pre-Start Safety → Elevation Mismatch Check. It is off by default; the threshold defaults to 30 in (76 cm).
How to use it: when the Target Far From Current Ground warning appears, read it before you start. A deep-cut station or a machine parked off the design line will trip it on its own; if neither applies, recalibrate to your benchmark and check the loaded design.
If the tablet drops off the controller's Wi-Fi, automatic grading stops within about a second. If GPS data stops, automatic grading holds, the readouts dim so you can see they're frozen, and the app drops the connection if data doesn't come back.
More →Automatic hydraulics must never act on stale data. The app watches the data stream and the Wi-Fi link continuously: if the tablet roams off the controller's network, grading halts within about a second; if GPS data goes quiet, automatic grading holds and readouts visibly dim so you can see the numbers are frozen, and the connection is torn down safely if data doesn't return. Backgrounding the app or navigating away from the grading screen also stops automatic control.
Where you'll find it: nowhere — it's always on, with nothing to configure.
How to use it: if a red disconnect banner appears, the blade has already been halted. Reconnect from the workflow's connection step or Pre-Flight Checks and resume where you left off.
See the water before you move dirt. The app pulls public LiDAR, runs drainage analysis, and carries your maps into fields with no signal.
Draw a boundary and the app fetches LiDAR elevation for the field (US 3DEP and Canadian HRDEM), caches satellite imagery, and generates flow-path and ponding maps in the cloud.
More →Prepare Field is the do-it-all button for a new field: one boundary, one name, and the app fetches public LiDAR elevation (US 3DEP or Canadian HRDEM coverage), caches the satellite imagery for offline use, and submits the terrain for cloud drainage analysis — flow paths, ponding, and depression maps that show where the water wants to go.
Where you'll find it: the LiDAR & Mapping workflow card on Home. It unlocks the first time the app sees a real controller connection, or an Emlid Reach receiver licensed for Ditch Assist Lite.
How to use it: with the tablet on internet, tap the card and pick Prepare Field, draw the boundary on the map, tap Prepare Field in the sidebar, name the field, tick the products you want, and tap Run Selected. Everything saves to the tablet — the saved elevation model then feeds Levee, Contour Tiling, Contour-Guided Terracing, and the tap-for-elevation checker, all fully offline.
Generate contours from any saved elevation model and follow them with lightbar and on-map arrow steering — for levees, contour tiling, and contour-guided terracing.
More →Some jobs follow the land instead of a line — levees on the contour, tile laterals along it, terraces guided by it. The app generates contour lines from any elevation model and steers you along them with a lightbar, exactly like following an AB line that happens to curve with the field.
Where you'll find it: the Levee workflow is built around it; Contour Tiling and Contour-Guided Terracing appear as options inside the Tiling and Terracing workflows.
How to use it: pick a terrain source — a saved LiDAR field, a whole-field survey, a point file, or a GeoTIFF DEM — choose the contour elevation or interval, and drive with the lightbar centered. Cross-track distance and steering arrows keep you on the curve at working speed.
LiDAR drainage layers — Flow Routes, Ponding Risk, and Depressions — delivered straight into the app's map. Currently included at no additional cost for Ditch Assist owners where public LiDAR is available.
More →LiDAR Drainage Mapping turns public LiDAR for the field into three layers — Flow Routes, Ponding Risk, and Depressions — saved on the tablet and drawn directly on the app's map. Tick Generate flow and depression mapping in Prepare Field to make them. Owners, including Ditch Assist Lite owners, can also run the same mapping from the office in the Geo-Surface owner portal and load the exported images as map overlays.
Where you'll find it: Saved Fields / DEMs in the LiDAR & Mapping sidebar, or My LiDAR Fields in the Map Layers dialog on any map screen. The LiDAR Drainage Mapping page covers owner access and coverage.
How to use it: generate your fields while on internet; afterwards the layers reload fully offline. Toggle Depressions on while planning a ditch route, or Flow Routes while deciding where the mains should run — the layers sit under your live survey and design lines, with an Opacity slider on the ponding and depression layers and a Cutoff slider that hides shallow ponds.
Overlay KML files, WMS services, GeoTIFF rasters, and georeferenced images on the field map, with opacity control per layer.
More →Bring your own context: tile plans from a contractor as KML, county imagery as WMS, an elevation raster as GeoTIFF, or an old paper map scanned and georeferenced as an image overlay. They all render on the field map under your live position.
Where you'll find it: the Layers button (FAB) on any map screen opens the layer manager — add, toggle, reorder, and set opacity per layer. The free Image Georeferencer tool on this site prepares image overlays.
How to use it: copy files to the tablet and add them from the Map Layers dialog, or point a WMS layer at a service URL. Layers persist between sessions, so the context you set up in the office is waiting in the field.
Satellite basemaps cache to the tablet, so guidance and mapping keep working in fields with no data coverage.
More →Fields don't come with cell coverage, so the app treats offline as the normal case. Satellite basemap tiles cache automatically as you view them, and the LiDAR field-prep flow caches a field's imagery deliberately, ahead of time, at multiple zoom levels.
Where you'll find it: automatic — no setting to enable. The deliberate per-field cache happens in LiDAR & Mapping → Prepare Field.
How to use it: open the field's map area once while you have internet (or run Prepare Field on it), and the imagery is on the tablet. Surveys, designs, layers, and saved LiDAR products are all stored locally anyway — the whole workflow runs signal-free.
Tap anywhere on the map to read the LiDAR elevation at that spot — quick answers to "which end is higher?" before you commit to a plan.
More →Once a field has a saved LiDAR elevation model, you can tap any spot on the map and read its elevation, in your units, without driving there.
Where you'll find it: an elevation-check button appears on the survey and grading maps whenever at least one saved LiDAR elevation model exists on the tablet.
How to use it: tap the button, pick which saved elevation model to read from if you have several, then tap points on the map. Checking an outlet against a field corner, comparing two possible routes, or confirming which way a flat-looking field actually falls takes seconds — before you commit the machine to a plan.
Surveys, designs, and grading jobs all save to the tablet and come back exactly as you left them — across app restarts, tablet swaps via export, and days between visits.
Organize work by client, farm, and field; filter saved files and benchmarks to the active field; and see prior runs together on the map.
More →Field Mode is an optional organization layer for repeat work. Create a field on its own, or place it under a farm and client. When it is enabled, the app asks you to confirm the field before a workflow starts. New surveys, designs, grading jobs, levee jobs, LiDAR fields, and saved benchmarks are tagged to that active field.
Where you'll find it: Settings → Fields. Field Mode is beta and off by default. Existing work stays untouched under Unfiled; turning Field Mode off hides the field controls without rewriting or deleting any files.
Find and re-file work: survey, design, job, and benchmark browsers open on the active field, with an All fields option when you need everything. Use Move to field… on an existing item to file it correctly later.
See the field's history: the timeline button on survey and grading maps shows reference lines for the active field — surveyed runs as dashed gray, designed runs in amber, and finished grading in green. Your live run stays visually dominant, so you can line up the next ditch or tile run against work already completed.
A grading job saves its design, coverage, nudges, and pass state — resume tomorrow, recalibrate to your benchmark, and keep cutting.
More →A grading job is more than a design — it's the design plus everything that happened: coverage, graded terrain, nudge offsets, which pass you're on. Jobs capture all of it, so tomorrow starts where today stopped.
Where you'll find it: jobs save automatically while you grade; the Resume Job list opens from the Resume button on the grading sidebar, and reopening a workflow offers your recent jobs.
How to use it: to resume, open the job, recalibrate to your saved benchmark if the base has been off, and Start — the coverage map, pass counter, and remaining work are exactly as you left them. Name jobs from the save dialog if you run several in one field.
Work in progress checkpoints itself. If the tablet dies mid-survey, the app recovers your points on restart.
More →Tablets die, batteries quit, and apps get killed by the OS at the worst moment. The app assumes all of it: in-progress surveys checkpoint as they record, grading jobs save continuously, and files are written so that an interruption mid-save can't corrupt what was already on disk.
Where you'll find it: nowhere — there's no setting, it's just how the app writes data.
How to use it: if the tablet shuts down mid-survey, reopen the app: it offers to recover the in-progress survey from the last checkpoint. Grading work is already in the job file. Worst case you lose the last few seconds, not the afternoon.
Share surveys and designs as KML or XYZ through the Android share sheet — for your agronomist, your records, or another machine.
More →Your data is yours, in formats anything can open: KML for mapping tools, XYZ point text for spreadsheets and design software.
Where you'll find it: the export options live in the survey/design browser dialogs — pick a file, choose Export, pick a format.
How to use it: the Android share sheet opens, so you can email it, drop it in cloud storage, or beam it to another tablet on the spot. It's also the simple way to move a survey to a second machine, hand a completed-work map to a landowner, or archive a season's ditches in your farm records.
The same app runs the Full Automation Kit and Guidance Only Kit on implements and the DIG™ Kit on excavators — and it works with the compatible RTK GPS you already run. Ditch Assist Lite runs it too, straight from an Emlid Reach receiver with no kit.
Connects to both hydraulic controller generations over Wi-Fi and auto-detects which one is wired up.
More →Whether your kit shipped last month or years ago, the same app runs it. Both Ditch Assist controller generations are fully supported over the controller's own Wi-Fi, and the app auto-detects which one it's talking to — no model numbers to look up.
Where you'll find it: every workflow's connection step; Pre-Flight Checks on Home offers the same connect options.
How to use it: join the controller's Wi-Fi network in Android settings once, then connect from the app. Sensible valve defaults load for the detected controller type, and your tuning is remembered per type after that.
With the DIG™ Kit, the app reads bucket-tip position for depth and grade guidance in every digging workflow — including level cuts at 0%.
More →On an excavator the working edge is the bucket tip, and the DIG™ Kit's sensors track it through every swing and curl. The app reads that live bucket-tip position and runs its grading guidance from it — dig to a falling grade or a dead-level 0% floor, with the same chevrons and error readouts as the blade modes.
Where you'll find it: the Excavator workflow card on Home connects to the DIG module directly.
How to use it: connect, set your target grade in the grade bar (0% is allowed for level work), benchmark the bucket on a known spot, and dig — the display shows cut/fill at the tip in real time. If the link drops mid-job, the app reconnects automatically when the module comes back.
Standard NMEA over the controller, plus Bluetooth GNSS receivers for surveying and mapping — Emlid and other compatible RTK receivers connect directly.
More →The Full Automation Kit, Guidance Only Kit and DIG™ Kit work with any compatible RTK GPS, including the one you already run — John Deere, Trimble, Outback, Emlid and more. Ditch Assist Lite runs on an Emlid Reach RS3 or RS4 only. The controller accepts RTK receivers that output standard NMEA — the industry-standard GPS data format — and the app can additionally pair directly with Bluetooth GNSS receivers for survey and mapping work without the controller powered up.
Where you'll find it: the connection step of each workflow offers controller, Bluetooth GNSS, and simulator sources; Bluetooth pairing has its own scan dialog.
How to use it: for grading, the receiver feeds the controller and there is nothing to pair. For scouting or surveying with a rover, pair it over Bluetooth and survey without the machine running. The GPS status badge always shows fix quality, so you know when you're RTK-fixed versus float.
Response presets by blade size plus full PID and duty-cycle tuning for the hydraulics — dial in smooth control on your machine, not a generic one.
More →Every machine's hydraulics feel different — a small blade on a fast valve behaves nothing like a big scraper on a slow one. The app ships response presets by blade size that work out of the box, and opens full tuning when you want it: proportional/integral/derivative gains, minimum and maximum valve duty cycle, and raise/lower response rates.
Where you'll find it: Settings → Controller, with the presets front and center and the advanced numbers behind them.
How to use it: start with the preset that matches your implement and only touch the numbers if the blade hunts (lower the gain) or responds lazily (raise it). Settings persist per controller type, and your dealer can talk you through a tune over the phone using the same screen.
All eight modes run against a simulated machine and terrain — learn the workflow in the office before the season, no hardware connected.
More →The best time to learn the app is not with the machine idling and daylight burning. The built-in simulator stands in for the whole rig — GPS, terrain, and a machine that drives the route and responds to grading commands — so all eight modes run end to end with no hardware at all. The simulator doesn't unlock LiDAR & Mapping — that takes a real hardware connection.
Where you'll find it: tap Simulate in any workflow's connection step, with a choice of terrain profiles and drive paths.
How to use it: run a full job in the office: survey, design with Slope-IQ, benchmark, grade, watch the coverage fill in. Train a new operator in an afternoon, or rehearse an unfamiliar workflow (first tile job?) before doing it for real. There's also a browser version to try before installing anything.
Grade guidance for any machine you can put a GPS on: only an Emlid Reach RS3 or RS4 on the blade, connected to the app over the receiver's Wi-Fi. No wires, no valve.
More →Set Mode to Ditch Assist Lite in Settings and the app looks for a Reach hotspot instead of a control module. Every survey, design, chevron, profile chart and coverage tool works the same, and Auto-Nudge™ sets each pass’s target; there are no Raise/Lower or Hold controls because nothing moves the blade for you, so you work the controls to match the target. Every mode is included — Ditching, Terracing, Land Forming, Simple Grading, Tiling, Leveling, Levee & Contour, and Excavator — plus LiDAR & Mapping, all as guidance. Excavator mode in Ditch Assist Lite reads grade with the stick and bucket brought back to the same position each time; live bucket-tip grade requires the Ditch Assist DIG™ Kit, a separate product. Each receiver is licensed once with a code entered on the tablet, no internet needed. The Guidance Only Kit is the module-based alternative: it takes any compatible receiver, powers it from the module, and becomes the Full Automation Kit when you add the valve. Ditch Assist Lite is Emlid-only and has no upgrade path: automating later means buying the Full Automation Kit at full price, with no credit for Ditch Assist Lite. Ditch Assist Lite →
The app is built for twelve-hour days on a tablet bouncing across a field.
A high-contrast sunlight theme for midday glare and a dark theme for early starts — big touch targets throughout.
More →A tablet that's readable at 6 a.m. is washed out at noon, and vice versa. The app ships two purpose-built themes: a dark theme that's easy on the eyes in low light, and a high-contrast sunlight theme that stays readable with the sun directly on the glass.
Where you'll find it: Settings → Display.
How to use it: switch any time — the whole app follows instantly, including the charts and map. Buttons and touch targets are sized for work gloves, and the layout is built for a landscape tablet mounted in the cab.
Feet and inches or meters and centimeters, switchable any time — every readout, dialog, and chart follows (Land Forming runs in metric).
More →Grades in percent are universal, but everything else is regional — feet and inches in one country, meters and centimeters next door. The app is fully bilingual in units: every elevation, depth, distance, speed, and volume displays in your chosen system. The one exception is Land Forming, which runs in metric.
Where you'll find it: Settings → Units.
How to use it: pick imperial or metric once; every screen, dialog, chart axis, and export label follows. Switching later converts the display only — your recorded data is stored precisely underneath and loses nothing in the round trip.
The full app — every screen, dialog, and the built-in manual — in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
More →An operator shouldn't have to translate their tools in their head all day. The app is fully localized — every screen, button, warning dialog, and the complete built-in operator manual — in English, Latin American Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.
Where you'll find it: Settings → Language; the app also follows the tablet's system language out of the box.
How to use it: set it once. Everything follows, including the What's New release notes with each update. This website works in all three languages too — use the language picker in the navigation.
A complete illustrated operator manual lives in the app, with a What's New section covering every update — no signal required.
More →The manual isn't a PDF on a website — it's a chapter-by-chapter, illustrated operator guide built into the app, covering every workflow from first connection to advanced calibration, and it works with zero signal.
Where you'll find it: the Manual tab in the app's sidebar, with a table of contents down the side and a What's New section at the end.
How to use it: jump to the chapter for the workflow you're running — each one has a quick start, a full walkthrough, and a troubleshooting list. After an update, check What's New for what changed, in your language, without leaving the field.
Something odd in the field? Send a session log to support in one tap — with the detail our team needs to answer fast.
More →"It did something weird yesterday" is hard to troubleshoot; a session log isn't. The app keeps detailed session logs — connections, GPS quality, grading activity, warnings — and sending one to support is a single tap.
Where you'll find it: Settings → LOGS → Log Files → Send, with your name on it so support knows who's calling.
How to use it: reproduce the issue if you can, then send the log the same day. Support sees the app version, tablet model, and a timeline of what the app saw — usually enough to answer without a truck roll. Logs upload privately and never include anything but the app's own diagnostics.
New features ship as free updates to every kit and to Ditch Assist Lite, and earlier versions stay available to download.
More →The kit, or the Ditch Assist Lite license, is the purchase; the app is free and stays free. There's no subscription and no per-mode activation — the same app runs every kit and Ditch Assist Lite, and new features ship to everyone at once.
Where you'll find it: updates are posted on the app download page, with release notes in the app's What's New.
How to use it: download the new version when it suits you — mid-season you might wait, winter you might update the day it lands. Earlier releases stay available for download, so if an update doesn't suit your setup you can step back while support sorts it out.